Photos by Marek Richter
You might be thinking that Capel, near Horsham, isn’t exactly Brighton… and you’d be right. Capel is a good 45 minutes drive away, but the fact that the organizers and many of the acts come from down here is enough for us. The Firegathering Festival is a 3 day event held on farm land in the beautiful English countryside. Surrounded by nature and all enclosed in an open green area, with a large fire burning directly in the centre, the location is perfect for such an event. The site isn’t massive but it doesn’t need to be any bigger at the current volumes. One downfall with larger festivals can be the sheer scale of the site – you are constantly dredging back and forth between your tent and the action. The Firegathering is currently at a perfect size and that is partly what makes it a moderately undiscovered and unspoilt gem.
The Firegathering is a Community Interest Company (CIC) set up to promote brilliant live music, circus arts, cabaret and much more without financial profit being the catalyst. The Firegathering Festival is really good fun, friendly & affordable.
The festival has been running since 2004, originally based in Suffolk, and has seen a good level of growth with each year. It is the brainchild of 5 Brighton based individuals who run a business together during the day (Firetoys.com), however this business plays no commercial part in the event itself. The festival is run for love rather than financial gain. Corporate sponsorship is nowhere to be seen and everything is aimed at being as eco conscious as possible. The food on offer is all organic, mainly vegetarian, and locally sourced. My only complaint would be the lack of meat on offer, it seems all the meat options sold out so quickly that us carnivores were left hungry.
The entertainment at the festival is all aimed around the circus theme with an abundant array of jugglers and performers. The ethos of the festival is to get stuck in and have ago – and so they did adults and children alike.
The main stage kept the show going with a constant flow of bands while another smaller tent was set up with a much more intimate feel. Comedy acts and various performers could be caught in the circus. This also included some entertainment of a more blue nature. From scantily clad burlesque dancers, to a naked lady completely covered head to toe in gold, pulling a balloon from her arse. All flawlessly choreographed to the tune of Spandau Ballet’s gold! You don’t see that every day. This was late at night I should add, so adults only.
For those wishing to wind down after a long night of festivities a healing area was provided. “The Orchid”, as it was known, was tucked away in a secluded area behind the main stage – offering a quiet place to take some time out. Various types of massage and meditation being on offer or if like myself you could just sit back, sip at your beer and soak in the sun.
I’m usually not the hippie type, and a festival mainly of live bands is not usually my fortay but I can happily say I would return to the Firegathering. The experience for me was a camping trip with lots of laid on entertainment. A nice change from other larger more hectic commercial festivals. The next festival for me to attend is Sonar in Barcelona and I am pretty sure that won’t leave me feeling as relaxed and content as the Firegathering.
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